1. Field of the Invention
Gasoline compositions are highly refined products. Despite this, they contain minor amounts of impurities which can promote corrosion during the period that the fuel is transported in bulk or held in storage. Corrosion can also occur in the fuel tank, fuel lines and carburetor of a motor vehicle. As a result, a commercial motor fuel composition must contain a corrosion inhibitor to inhibit or prevent corrosion.
Internal combustion engine design is undergoing changes to meet new standards for engine exhaust gas emissions. One design change involves the feeding of blow-by gases from the crankcase zone of the engine into the intake air supply to the carburetor rather than venting these gases to the atmosphere as in the past. Another change involves free cycling part of the exhaust gases to the combustion zone of the engine in order to minimize objectionable emissions. Both the blow-by gases from the crankcase zone and the recycled exhaust gases contains significant amounts of deposit forming substances which promote the formation of deposits in and around the throttle plate area of the carburetor. These deposits restrict the flow of air through the carburetor and at low speeds so that an overrich fuel mixture results. This condition produces rough engine idling or stalling causing an increase in the amount of polluting exhaust gas emissions, which the engine design changes were intended to overcome, and decreasing fuel efficiency.
An acceptable motor fuel contains additives addressed to correcting or inhibiting these disabling characteristics of motor fuel. Thus, the discovery of novel and compatible motor fuel additives capable of general application and selective modification to accommodate changing demands while combining good detergency properties with effective corrosion inhibition will provide a material advance in the state of the art.
The prior art discloses derivatives of N-acylsarcosine as corrosion inhibitors for fuel compositions. It has been found, however, that these compounds can be completely extracted into the caustic water bottoms encountered in gasoline manufacture. Consequently, the fuels lose their corrosion inhibiting property just when this property is most needed. A novel N-acylsarcosine derivative has been found which mitigates or overcomes the problem of extraction by caustic water bottoms during manufacture and which provides a motor fuel composition having valuable corrosion inhibition and carburetor detergent properties.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 2,919,979 discloses a rust inhibited motor fuel composition containing a simple mixture of an acylsarcosine and a 1,2-disubstituted imidazoline. U.S. Pat. No. 3,033,664 discloses an anti-icing motor fuel composition containing a 1,2, di-substituted imidazoline.